Page - 81 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

thematerialist view of history 81 a product of social being); objective (consciousness as a reflectionofmater- ial conditionsofexistence); and functional (ideasandvaluesdisseminatedat a certain level of social development are determinedby the class structure). Consequently, heassumed that goals grewoutof thehistoricalprocess itself. Individualscouldjudgetheiractionsasgoodorbad,buttheobjectivevalueof sucha judgementdependsonwhether their actions corresponded tonorms andgoals establishedby thepracticeof the class at the time.With reference totherevolutionarypotentialoftheclass,Kautskyregardedthestruggleofthe proletariat and its class consciousness as themost important ethical factors in thehistorical process. Furthermore, althoughKautskywas an advocate of moralrelativism,heviewedthegoalsoftheproletariatfromtheperspectiveof axiological universalism: the class interest of theproletariat determineduni- versalhumanvaluesandgoals inthe longterm.Therefore, science(Marxism) decidedwhat goals were adequate under existing conditions, and the class struggledecidedhowthesegoalswere tobeachieved.Thesocialist ideacon- tainedavisionof the liberationof theproletariat,yet thisnecessity,according to Kautsky, had nomoral value. As Kołakowski and Rudziński pointed out, the theory outlined above in noway explainedwhy that which is historic- ally necessary should be desired by the people, nor why it is morally justi- fied.69 The theses developed in Ethics and theMaterialist Conception of History triggered an immediate reaction on the part of Bauer andMaxAdler (in an article in 1906). The Austromarxists concurred with Kautsky that all social developments,includingallmoraldevelopments,weredeterminedbychanges in the realm of production and technology – yet they did not accept this as a sufficient solution to the ethical question. Quite rightly, they accused Kautskyofanthropologismwithrespecttohisconceptionoftheanimalworld. Criticising the limitations of historicalmaterialism, theyobserved that, even thoughithelpedtogainknowledgeaboutchanges insocialpractices, itcould onlydemonstratechangesinthecontentofvaluesandpointtothereasonsfor thewithering awayof old values and the birth of newones.Hence, Kautsky merely revealed that the emergence and changeofmoral norms andethical idealswere socio-historically determined. Yet the real ethical problemstarts beyond these genetic observations. AsAdlerwrote: ‘Thematerial conditions do not produce the ethical ideal; they only give it historical content. They determinehowitwillbe implemented’.70For theAustromarxists, theprimary 69 SeeKołakowski2005,p.385,andRudziński 1975,p.65. 70 ‘DiemateriellenBedingungen schaffen alsonicht das sittliche Ideal, sondern sie geben